How Far We've Come
by sasserifics
Summary: [CHARACTERS ARE ALL HUMANS, NOT DEMIGODS] — Follow Percy Jackson and his friends on their journey through their final year of high school, dealing with relationships, friendships, romance, alcohol, family and much more. This is the story of how far they've come.
1. The New Girl

**Disclaimer:** I do not own Percy Jackson and the characters associated with them. Note that, in this fanfiction, they are NOT demigods. There are no monsters, no Gods, no Titans. All the characters are completely human.

* * *

The sunlight streamed through the crevice of the maroon curtain, casting a glare upon Percy Jackson's face, causing the raven haired boy to let out a groggy groan. It couldn't have been time for school; he had only fallen asleep an hour or so ago. Or at least it felt that way. Peeling his face away from the pillow, he lifted up his head to look at the alarm clock by his bedside table. 7AM. Groaning, he rolled over, rubbing the sleep from his sea green eyes. Even if he had gone to bed early the night before, Percy still felt as tired as ever when he woke up. With a defeated sigh, Percy sat himself up in his bed; taking a look around his room. Percy's room was his favourite place; it was the once place he could be himself. He was never nagged at to clean his room, as the Jackson family believed that a person's bedroom was their own world, and one should never be told how to live in their own world. So, even if Percy's mother hated seeing the pile of clothes in the corner, or term papers strewn across the desk, she never said a word to her son, believing that if he wanted, he would clean it up himself. And Percy did try to keep his room clean. It was just that sometimes he tended to forget to put the freshly washed shirts away, or to throw the scraps of paper into the bin.

Hearing footsteps pad across the hallway on the other side of the mahogany door, Percy yawned and pulled the covers off himself, standing up from the bed to prepare himself for the day ahead. Grabbing a fresh pair of clean jeans and a white t-shirt, he left the confinements of his room, walking down the hallway towards the bathroom. Percy's morning routine was the same almost everyday; wake up, have a shower, have breakfast, head to school. Occasionally, however, he would have to wake up extra early for swimming practice. Thankfully, practice had been cancelled this month, and so Percy did not need to worry about waking up an extra two hours earlier.

After his shower, changed into neat and clean clothes, Percy joyfully descended down the stairs, taking them two at a time. He swaggered into the kitchen, right into the smell of cooking bacon in the air.

"Morning!" Percy greeted, as his mother, Sally, walked over to him, planting a kiss on his forehead with a warm smile.

"Morning, sweetheart," she replied, sliding the bacon from the pan onto the plate on the table, a plate that already housed two sunny side up eggs. Licking his lips, Percy sat down at his seat and began waffling down his breakfast. Just as Percy had finished his first strip of bacon, he heard more footsteps padding into the kitchen.

"Good morning Mum! Good morning Percy!" Percy's younger brother, Tyson, had a goofy grin on his face as he entered the kitchen, taking a seat opposite Percy as Sally slid his portion of bacon onto his plate, planting a kiss onto his forehead as she did so.

"Paul won't be home for dinner tonight, so what would you guys like me to make? Lasagne?" Sally leaned against the island, looking expectantly at her sons, her eyes full of love for them.

"Lasagne sounds good," Tyson said, through a mouthful of eggs. Swallowing, he chugged down his cup of milk before wiping his lips with the back of his hand.

"Well, Grover and them are coming over tonight, so why don't we have pizza? It'll be easier," Percy suggested, shrugging.

"Ah yes, I completely forgot it was a Friday!" Sally said, shaking her head at her own memory, "Pizza it is, then!"

There was this ritual amongst Percy and his friends - there were five of them; Grover Underwood, his best friend since kindergarten, Thalia Grace, Percy's enemy-turned-good-friend, Nico Di Angelo, who had helped Percy in a fight back in middle school (an action that solidified their friendship) and Rachel Dare, Percy's childhood family friend - would hang out together every Friday after school, and would either go to one of their houses or just hang out at the mall. Their parents knew of this ritual, it had gone on for years. Even if today had been the first day back of the year, they had all made plans to go to Percy's house.

"Yay, pizza!" Tyson said, grinning.

Percy laughed at his younger brother's enthusiasm over food before standing up, "Come on Ty, time for school." Grabbing his bag pack off the couch, Percy slung it over his shoulder and waited for his ten-year-old brother by the bottom of the stairs. When Tyson was done with his shoes, both boys headed out the door, with a loud "Have a nice day!" from Sally in the kitchen.

The drive to school was the same as ever; Percy had dropped off Tyson at his school, reminded him that he'd pick him up when it ended and had made his way to his high school. Driving into his school, Percy glanced around. There were a few students standing idly by their cars, and after what felt like hours, Percy finally found an empty parking space. The walk from the car park to the main school building took about five minutes, and when Percy reached his locker, the hallways were already starting to fill up with students.

"Percy!" After depositing his books into his locker, Percy glanced up the hallway, his grin appearing as he saw his friends walking towards him. Grover was the first to reach him; Grover was the same height as Percy, both boys standing at 6'0", but that was where the similarities ended. Grover was skinny, and had no visible muscle on him; he had curly brown hair and deep set brown eyes. "Please say you have Government first period."

Chuckling, Percy glanced at his timetable. "Nah, afraid not, I have Psych. With Mr Brunner." Grover let out a disappointed sigh, just as Nico and Thalia approached them. Nico and Thalia looked like twins; they both had jet black hair, and had somewhat pale skin. However, Nico was shorter, and he had eyes that matched the deepest of nights, while Thalia had eyes blue as lightning, a trait that often made people steer clear of her, she always gave off the vibe that she was trouble.

"Does he have Gov?" Nico asked, looking at Grover, who shook his head sadly. Both Nico and Thalia laughed harmoniously, before Thalia slapped Grover on the back in what was supposed to be a consolidation.

"So what, you have Mrs Dodds for Gov all alone," Thalia teased, "She loved you last year." It was then that Percy got the joke. Mrs Dodds was Grover's least favourite teacher, and she taught his least favourite subject, Government. And apparently, he was forced to endure her class all alone this year.

"What about Rachel?" Percy asked, trying to sound upbeat.

"She has… Art, I think, with Mr Fred," Nico said.

"And what do you two have?" Percy asked, looking to Nico and Thalia, taking note of the fact that Nico seemed to have blushed slightly at the mention of "you two". This made the corner of Percy's lip twitch upwards, a grin threatening to push through.

"We have Greek," Thalia said, "With Mr Chiron. Should be fun, huh, Nico?" She nudged him in the rib, to which he replied with a nod and small laugh.

"Ah, Mr Chiron hates being called Mr Chiron, remember?" Percy asked, "'Call me Chiron.'" He did the best impression of the Greek teacher, which cause his friends to laugh loudly. Just then, the shrill bell echoed down the hallway, signalling for students to head to class.

"Ah, I better be off," Grover said, sighed sadly, "See you guys at lunch!" Waving goodbye, he quickly jogged down the hallway.

"We better go to," Nico said, "Chiron would not like us being late on the first day. Have fun with Brunner, Percy!" With that, he and Thalia disappeared into the sea of students, leaving Percy alone. Walking towards his classroom, Percy tried his best to keep out of rushing students' way.

When he had reached his classroom, he was glad to see that the class was not yet full, which meant that Percy was free to pick his own seat. Taking a desk by the window, he dumped his books onto the table as students all shuffled in around him, some greeting him as they walked by. One of his friends, Charlie Beckendorf, sat behind Percy, with his girlfriend, Silena Beauregard beside him. Behind them, sat Thalia's twin brother Jason and his best friend, Leo Valdez. Soon, every place but the one next to Percy was occupied, and though he didn't mind being alone, he knew it was going to be a boring year. Burying himself with browsing through his bag, Percy jumped when he felt something drop on the desk next to him. Looking up, he felt his jaw drop slightly. Standing by the empty desk was a girl, a girl he had never seen in his four years at this high school. Her hair was blonde and tied into a tight braid that fell down the side of her shoulder, her skin was somewhat tanned, and her eyes… _Her eyes,_ Percy thought to himself sheepishly, _Wow_. They were the colour of cloudy skies; grey and stormy. It felt as if she was thinking about a million different things at once.

"Can I sit here?" Snapping out of his thoughts, Percy nodded quickly, moving his bag aside to give her more space. She gave him a nod of thanks and sat down, immediately starting to pull out her books and stationery.

"Are you new here?" The question had come out before Percy could stop himself, and immediately he regretted it; the girl next to him was giving off the vibe that she was not one who spoke a lot.

"Yes. I just transferred for my senior year." She glanced sideways at him, as if assessing him, and suddenly, he felt self conscious. Was he hair alright? Did he have toothpaste in the corner of his lip? Instinctively, he brought up a hand to check the corners of his lips. Nothing there.

"Oh, welcome to Yancy Academy, then," Percy said cheerfully, "I'm Percy Jackson."

"Thank you. I'm Annabeth. Annabeth Chase."

* * *

Psych went by quickly, as did Percy's next few classes - he had English with Nico, Government with Rachel and Thalia, and Calculus with Grover. He never saw Annabeth again, a realization that made him somewhat disappointed. It wasn't that he had a crush on her; Percy felt as if she would be a cool person to hang out with, and since she was new, he regretted not talking to her more during class.

"Man, Calculus is such a horrible subject," Grover complained as the two boys made their way to the cafeteria, "I don't understand why it's compulsory."

"Me neither, G-man, me neither," Percy said, "When are we ever going to need to find something that doesn't exist in our lives?"

"You know the answer to that," Grover said, "Never."

When the two boys entered the cafeteria, Percy was still laughing, and because he had been occupied, he hadn't seen where he was going, and had bumped into someone, causing him to tumble backwards onto the floor.

"Watch where you're going, Jackson." Hearing the familiar voice, Percy's eyes immediately turned to slits as he pushed himself upwards. Standing across from him was Luke Castellan, Percy's biggest rival since they were in middle school. Luke wore his usual scowl, a scowl that was only reserved for the likes of Percy. "You're lucky I wasn't holding any food."

"Oh, you eat? I thought the football team had this stupid no-carb diet," Percy said, sarcasm dripping in his tone.

Luke's face changed from disgust to annoyance, and for a second, Percy could've sworn his eyes flashed red, though whether in anger or humiliation, he would never know. "You're not even worth it," Luke spat venomously, walking pass Percy and Grover, making it a point to shove both of them in the shoulder. As his group of friends followed suit, Percy took a step to the side to avoid being shoved.

"He's such an asshole," Grover grumbled as he loaded his tray with today's meal - tacos and mango pudding.

"Whatever," Percy said, shrugging, "I just love pissing him off." Both boys made their way towards their table, where Thalia, Nico and Rachel were seated, along with Jason, Leo, and Piper Mclean and Reyna Mazon, who were Leo's and Jason's girlfriends.

"Had another spat with Luke?" Nico asked as both boys took a seat at the table. Hearing Luke's name, Thalia briefly glanced upwards from the book she was reading, and when she saw Percy looking at her, she immediately dropped her gaze. Thalia and Luke had been together up until their junior year at high school, where Luke cheated on her with Clarisse La Rue.

"What? No," Grover said, "He was just being his usual douchebag self. I mean… you know, he was just being Luke."

"Whatever," Nico said, leaning back in his seat, just as Rachel leaned forward in hers, her red hair falling down the sides of her face.

"You guys have no idea who I have in my Chemistry class," she said, "She's a new girl, named Annabeth. And she is beyond smart. Like, she's such a genius - it's like she's some sort of prodigy. She got every single on Ms Athena's stupid pop quiz right, and half of the things we hadn't even learnt yet."

"Did you cheat off her?" Leo asked, grinning as he grabbed a grape from Piper's plate, throwing it into his mouth.

"No! I hardly even talked to her," Rachel said, "She doesn't really talk much."

"Yeah, she doesn't," Percy agreed, finishing the remains of his mango pudding, and when all eyes averted to him, he merely laughed, "She's in my Psych class - Leo, Jason, she was the one that sat next to me."

Understanding dawned on both Jason's and Leo's faces as their memory returned. "She's really pretty," Leo said, which caused a glare in his direction from Piper, "I mean, not like - in that way. I mean, she seems like the type of girl who would kick my ass if I told her that."

"She probably would," Percy said.

"Oh, there she is with -" There was a pause in Jason's sentence as his eyes flickered over to his twin; Thalia had once again glanced up from the book to shift her gaze to where Jason had indicated, as did everyone on that table. Standing by the entrance of the cafeteria, Annabeth was chatting animatedly with Luke Castellan.

"What do you think he's saying?" Reyna whispered.

"Probably telling her how much weights he lifted last night," Rachel said, losing interest quickly as she turned back to her food. Soon, everyone had forgotten about the conversation from earlier and had returned to their own little world.

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**A/N: **The other chapters will probably not be as long as this one. But yeah, this was me just word vomiting. LOL. Please read and review, thanks!


	2. The Party

**Disclaimer:** I do not own Percy Jackson and the characters associated with them. Note that, in this fanfiction, they are NOT demigods. There are no monsters, no Gods, no Titans. All the characters are completely human.

* * *

"Okay, so remind me why we're going to this god forsaken party again?" Percy glanced behind him, at the scene before him; they were in the basement of the Grace household, and while Rachel and Thalia were in the bathroom putting on their makeup, Grover and Nico were lounging on the sofas, all looking smart and casual.

"Because Luke invited Jason, who's apparently still cool in Luke's books because he's on the football team, and Jason, being the smart boy that he is, asked if Thalia could come, and then Thalia said she'd go if we went and so Jason asked Luke if we could and surprisingly he said yes so here we are," Nico said, his tone bored and sleepy.

"It was a rhetorical question," Percy replied, giving himself a final once-over in the mirror.

"I bet you Luke's got a prank for us," Grover said as he twisted a finger around the hem of his shirt, something he did regularly when he was nervous.

"I don't think he would," Nico said, "I mean, why would he go out of the way to embarrass us at his own party?"

"Whatever, really," Percy said, shrugging, "Man the girls take forever." As if they had been listening in on the conversation, Rachel and Thalia emerged from the bathroom.

"Ready?" Thalia glanced around, toying with the silver bracelet on her wrist, a bracelet, Percy remembered, given to her by Luke.

"Ready as I'll ever be," Grover murmured.

* * *

Pulling up the car into the driveway, Percy was not surprised at the blaring music that could be heard. As the five shuffled out of the car, Percy immediately felt like something was wrong. He kept up his guard, and when they arrived at the door, he was the one to knock on the ivory door. The door opened and Percy was surprised to see that Jason was the one who answered.

"Hey! Come on in - everyone's at the pool in the backyard," he said gleefully, holding the door open, "Glad you could make it."

Thalia and Jason walked ahead, leaving Rachel, Percy, Nico and Grover to amble behind, taking in the house. "I really dislike the art in here," Rachel noted, glancing around. Standing next to her, Percy couldn't really comment on it, as he wasn't someone who knew much about art. "Everything's so… fake."

"Just like the people," Nico grumbled, as the four of them walked into the backyard. The party was in full swing, and Percy wondered what the special occasion was. And then he remembered; it had been two weeks since school started, and the football team had just won their first game of the season last Friday.

"Can we go now?" Grover asked. He wasn't one for parties; Grover was the type of teenager who preferred to spend Saturday night reading a good book or watching comedic movies at home.

"No, we just go here," Percy said, grabbing three drinks from the cooler, handing them to each of his friends, before taking one can for himself, "Come on. Let's party."

* * *

Thankfully, Percy managed to avoid Luke. Yeah, it was rude to avoid the host of the party, but Percy didn't really feel like talking to Luke. He never did. Percy did, however, see a lot of people he knew - Charles and Silena were present, as were Frank Zhang and Hazel Levesque, who were friends with Leo. And of course, Percy also saw Annabeth once or twice. Over the past two weeks, the two of them had become somewhat friends. They talked quite a bit more, but there was so much Percy didn't know about her, so it was weird to consider her a friend. She was more like an acquaintance.

Percy had been in the party for two hours, and he was slowly getting bored. He didn't feel like going for a swim, even though the water was once place he loved, and he had lost his friends in the crowds of people. He had thought of going home, but when he remembered that he had to drive them home, he stopped himself. So, he decided to hang out indoors - he had taken up a seat on the large couch in the living room, watching whatever show was playing on the TV.

He hadn't expected anyone else to be inside, and therefore had jumped when he felt someone sit next to him.

"What're you doing?" Annabeth asked, as Percy moved over for her to have more room.

"Watching TV, what's it look like?" Percy hadn't meant for his question to come out sarcastically, but sometimes, he couldn't help it.

"Looks like you're avoiding the party, Seaweed Brain." Hearing the nickname, Percy couldn't hold back the roll of his eyes. They had been in Psych one lesson, and while they were studying the human brain, Percy had stupidly said that the brain looked like seaweed. Annabeth, had in turn, said that Percy's brain was like seaweed. And thus, the nickname was born.

"Oh, really? How did you get that?" Percy feigned surprise, before switching the TV off, "The party's not really my thing. I'm just waiting for my friends to text me and beg me to take them home."

"Really? That's a shame," Annabeth said, shrugging, "The party's pretty awesome." Just then, the phone she had been holding vibrated in her hand. Her eyes flickered to the screen, and she stood up, "Sorry, I have to go. I'll see you around."

Percy watched as she rushed off outside, her blonde hair mixing into the sea of students. Leaning back on the chair, Percy took another sip of his soda, just as his phone vibrated in his pocket. Pulling it out, he slid the screen, punching in his four numbered lock, reading the text.

_Come out to the garage. I have a surprise for you. — Annabeth_

Immediately, suspicion, with hints of eager and anticipation, flared within Percy as he stood up from his seat. Placing his can on the coffee table, he made his way into the garage. It was dark inside, and so he had to fumble forward clumsily, his hand groping the wall to find the switch. When he found it, he flicked it downwards, and the sight in front made his face turn a mask of horror.

In the middle of the garage, Annabeth sat on Luke's lap, their lips connecting, their eyes closed. Luke's hands were placed on Annabeth's hips, occasionally sliding lower, pushing her towards him. However, the second after the light was on, Annabeth's eyes flew open, turning to face Percy.

"Percy? What the hell are you doing here?!" Her question almost went unheard by him; he was so consumed in anger. His hands curled into fists by his side, his knuckles turning a sickly white. Without waiting for an answer, Annabeth quickly stood up, adjusting her singlet, her face reddening.

"Percy, why the fuck did you interrupt?" Luke asked, turning around, his face full of annoyance.

"Annabeth texted me," Percy said, gritting his teeth together, his gaze shifting from Luke to Annabeth. When he saw how confused she was, realization dawned on him. She didn't send the text. Someone else did. They had probably seen Percy and Annabeth talking and had decided to play a prank on him. Or they just wanted to screw with him and make Luke mad.

"I didn't," Annabeth replied, annoyance evident in her voice.

"Yeah I'm…" Percy's voice stopped short when he saw a pair of familiar blue eyes from outside. Electric blue. "I'm sorry. See you." With that, Percy turned on his heel and headed outside, to the other side of the garage.

Thalia stood frozen in her place, her face a mask of horror.

"Thalia?"

"He texted me," she said, "Luke. Asked me to come to the garage. I… I am so stupid." Tears had started to fall down her cheeks, and Percy walked up to her, pulling her into a hug. He knew she was never over Luke, no matter how much she tried to make people believe otherwise.

"Can we just go home?" Thalia asked, and Percy nodded. He pulled out his phone and sent a quick text to Rachel, Grover and Nico.

"We'll meet them by the car," Percy said, leading Thalia down the driveway.

* * *

"So Luke only said yes to inviting Thalia so that he could basically do that?" Nico asked, enraged. They had returned to Percy's house, and since his mother, stepfather and brother were out of town for the weekend, they didn't have to worry about waking anyone up. The only person that had not come over was Rachel, who had an important art competition the next morning.

"Yes," Percy said.

"And why did he ask you there too? Or, whoever who texted you from Annabeth's phone?" Grover asked, sliding further down the couch.

"Probably wanted Luke to be pissed at him and beat him up or something," Nico said, "I wonder how Thalia's doing."

"She seems pretty upset," Percy said, "I can't believe Luke would do that. I think he planned it all."

"Yeah, but why Annabeth? Do you think they're together?"

At Grover's question, Percy's fist tightened. He didn't really know why it bothered him so much; Annabeth was a friend, she could be with anybody he wanted. _Anybody but Luke,_ Percy thought bitterly, _He's a self centered, two faced, prissy dick._

"I don't know," Nico said, just as Thalia emerged from the bathroom. She had wiped clean any trace of make up, and her tears had stopped, but her eyes were still red.

"I hate him so much," she muttered, taking a seat next to Nico, "Next time I see him, I am going to slap him to the next continent. Or hit him in the balls and make sure he won't have any more children."

"Remind me to never get on your bad side," Grover said, before raising his hands in surrender, "I mean, I'm sorry, I shouldn't laugh."

"It's alright," Thalia said, "I just thought he - you know, wanted to get back together. It was stupid."

"Well, whatever, the party's done. We should get some sleep to make it in time for Rach's art thing tomorrow," Nico said, walking over to the guest bed in the basement, as Grover had already taken up the couch.

Percy couldn't fall asleep, and so he had decided to take a seat by the window, joined by Thalia minutes after Nico and Grover both fell asleep.

"You know, if you like her, you should just go ask her out."

Percy almost choked on his spit. "Excuse me?"

"Annabeth," Thalia said, as if her answer was obvious, "I see the way you look at her when she walks by. You obviously have a thing for her."

"She's just a friend," Percy said.

"Uh huh, if you say so," Thalia said, "Just don't wait too long. Otherwise someone else might get her first."

"She's just a friend," Percy repeated, a bit harsher, "I barely even know her."

"Well, why don't you start to get to know her?" Thalia suggested, and at Percy's glare, she shook her head, sighing, "Hey, I'm just giving you some friendly advice about girls, don't get too offended, Jackson." Standing up, she wondered over to the other guest bed, sitting on the mattress. "Goodnight."

* * *

**A/N: **As you can see, I'm making Luke a major asshole in this story. And I'm not really sorry about it. Also, since this story deals with the normal teenage problems (love, heartbreak, alcohol, family troubles, etc) it probably won't be as adventurous. It'll most likely be angsty if anything, so yeah. Read and review, please! 3


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